[Last EPIC Victory! of the night Kat Jones and Chewbacka Grizelda, I thought you guys would be especially pleased since youre both in WA. I know Kats hubby Cliff will be thrilled because hes Native American.] Idle No More Washington 10:54 PM (26 minutes ago) to me Today we celebrate a VICTORY for our Native youth! Yesterday during the rally at the Seattle Public Schools (SPS) board meeting in a historic vote of 5 – 2, SPS approved a new Native Heritage K–8 School! Thank you all for your support and for caring enough to call SPS, sign petitions, write letters, come to rallies, giving testimony, and pray for the education of our children! The Native Heritage program is joining forces to merge with the Pinehurst (AS#1) program. The proposed Native Heritage AS-1 program would be co-located at an interim site at Lincoln High School and then at the new building at Wilson Pacific in 2016! Below is an excerpt of the proposed partnership given to SPS: “The K-8 program would involve collaboration between the AS-1 community, the Indian Heritage program, and Native American community-based organizations to develop an authentic Native-focused curriculum integrated into the experiential, exploratory, project-based social justice curriculum of AS-1. The program would be housed in an interim site in the South Wing of Lincoln (or another suitable interim site with capacity to support the program) from 2014-2016 and then moved to the new elementary and/or middle school buildings to be constructed at Wilson Pacific. The Native Heritage AS-1 program will: • Have a strong, authentic focus on Native American experience, worldview, culture, and history; • Have culturally competent leadership and faculty that support both programs; • Collaborate with Native community-based organizations on leadership, training, program development, instructional materials, referrals, consultation and hiring; • Be multicultural, community-based and inclusive of Native and non-native students; • Utilize experiential, exploratory learning that supports high academic achievement; • Have comprehensive inclusion of sports, arts, and languages that are culturally relevant to Native and non-native students including but not limited to creative arts, theatre, music, athletics and language (lacrosse, pow-wows, stick games, basketball, Luchootseed, traditional song and dance and contemporary visual and media expression); • Include the recommended tribal sovereignty curriculum; • Maintain the social justice curriculum of AS-1 with additional focus on social justice issues affecting Native Americans and other Indigenous peoples; • Involve Native community-based organizations, institutions, and agencies to enhance services and support for students; • Continue the Rites of Passage (AS-1 program) for 8th graders; • Utilize multi-age classrooms where appropriate; We ask Seattle Public Schools to move AS-1 (currently at Pinehurst) to Lincoln as an interim site for the school years of 2014-15 and 2015-16 for the purpose of fully developing the mission, structure and curriculum of this partnered program. We call on SPS staff to commit themselves with a written MOA to ensure authentic shared decision making with Native community based organizations and Native community participation in developing the proposed programs. We also ask that the district honor promises made to the Native American Community to rename the new Wilson-Pacific school after Robert Eaglestaff. This proposal supports the District Policy 0030, Ensuring Educational and Racial Equity, by ensuring an equitable distribution of resources and funding are utilized to address the achievement gap, reduce disproportionality in disciplinary action, improve graduation rates, and raise the academic performance of SPS Native learners.” There is still more work to do, but we start today on a new path that our Native youth will know was a pivotal point in their education for them and the next 7 generations! Many blessings to you and your loved ones! It was a great day to be Idle No More! This message was sent by Idle No More Washington using the Change.org system. You received this email because you signed a petition started by Idle No More Washington on Change.org: The Termination of the Indian Heritage Program. Change.org does not endorse contents of this message. View the petition Unsubscribe from updates about this petition
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:21:52 +0000
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